Preparing to Mail Home HIV Test Kits

Video Transcript

"Alright. If I'm still sitting here talking to you on this video, then obviously I survived my finger stick and it's time to get a sample ready to send to the lab. Now, the first thing I want to do is, I actually bled more than I anticipated, is use the handy dandy little gauze pad that they included to get excess blood off my finger. There's no real worry to be worried about your own blood, you can't re-infect yourself with something you may already have. It's mostly just a courtesy to others and I'm sure the testing company doesn't want your blood all over where it doesn't belong. So, I take the band-aide off and I rip it and stick it. Apply a band-aide as you normally would, there's no secret to doing that as per being a health care professional. There we go. A little tiny owie, minimal pain, people complain about finger sticks because they tend to be itchy, and tend to hurt, "Oh, I hate the finger stick worse than I hate a shot." You're going to be OKay, though, and it's really important to make that little finger stick to draw blood for testing reason. So, here's my test sample, we're going to prepare it for mailing. I have detached the home access code number so I can call in to the 800 number to get my code, and it's also the number I called to activate the code and activate the test. And, this is the actual sample collection, as you can see, I have successfully filled both the front of the card, and the back of the card, fully with blood. Not only entirely in the circle, but a little bit outside too just for good measure. So, what we're going to do is let this part air dry for thirty minutes. And, we've completely filled the circle. This sample return pouch has a handy dandy little check list here for you to know. I have recorded the required information on the front of the card which entails writing the home access code out and writing today's testing date, and we're just going to close the pouch and place it inside."